Promoting Leadership Principles in Product Management

Category Archives: Innovation

Think about a product you use regularly. Why do you use it? Why do you love it? What keeps you coming back?

When creating a product or service, you want your users and buyers to answer these questions with positive reactions. You hope they will get the full value of your offering and that they will have a positive experience as they use for their business. You want them to keep coming back for more.

We’re living in an age where many industries are facing big changes. To thrive, or even survive, most companies need to find ways to innovate.

Yet, most companies fail to do that.

For example, according to McKinsey, more than 80% of executives think that their current business models are at risk and consider innovation to be very important for the future of their organization. However, only 6% of the said executives are actually satisfied with their innovation performance.

We live in a fast-paced world where technology changes our lives daily. For some it’s invigorating. For others it’s intimidating if not terrifying. With news about AI (artificial intelligence) getting smarter and more accurate, self-driving cars and trucks becoming more reliable, and neural networks communicating directly with people’s brains, it’s easy to see how people are getting nervous.

That change is coming is inevitable. What we do with it and how we handle it will determine our future.

Successful business leaders thrive on competition. They’re at their best when contending for the top customers in high-end markets. They may feel that if they’re not in the middle of a cut-throat battle with competitors, they must not be succeeding.

Do these statements represent your approach to business? While much as been written about competition and businesses that have been highly competitive and won, in reality, some of the most successful companies have won using very different techniques. They have changed the way they do business. They have made a shift to the blue ocean.

Every product and service we have today was once an idea. Even the most basic creations did not exist before someone came up with an impression for a better outcome that would be useful in some way.

When you stop and think about it, the number of incredible products and services available today is truly amazing. In many cases, these great products have developed into product lines, companies and even industries. And it all started with an idea.

Have you ever seen The Matrix, Terminator, MinorityReport or Ex Machina? All of these movies have one thing in common: they focus on the concept of transhumanism—the idea that technological innovation can help us surpass our human limitations, making us, literally, superhuman.

It may seem closer than we think in our Digital Era. We are constantly strapped to our technological devices—our phones, apps and laptops—answering emails, keeping track of schedules, updating social platforms and checking the news. Our technology has become our “transhuman” extension, but for business leaders, is this a good thing? Should our employees become robots?

Today I wanted to have a little bit of fun. Long-time readers probably know that I grew up on a cattle ranch, and despite my 20+ year career in products and leadership, I still love cows, horses and the rural life.

When I found this comparison of cows and businesses, I couldn’t pass up the chance to share it. So, here’s my attempt to use a bit of ‘cow-sense’ to describe eight models that will hopefully shed some light on ways to run your business.